Tata Steel wins Corus with $ 11.3 billion offer

LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) India's Tata Steel won a bid battle for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group on Wednesday by agreeing to offer investors 608 pence per share in cash, or 5.75 billion pounds (.3 billion).

Britain's Takeover Panel said in an e-mailed statement that after an auction Tata Steel had topped Brazilian Companhia Siderurgica Nacional's (CSN) final offer of 603 pence per share following a three-month tussle between the pair.

The auction process started at 1630 GMT on Tuesday, the close of trading in London where Corus shares ended 0.5 percent higher at 563 pence.

CSN and Tata Steel were keen to buy Corus to become significant players in the consolidating steel industry, where Dutch-based Mittal Steel last year bought Luxembourg's Arcelor to create the world's biggest steelmaker, Arcelor Mittal.

The battle pushed Corus's share price to seven-year highs and will make Tata Steel the world's fifth-biggest steelmaker.

Ahead of the auction, called last week by the Takeover Panel to bring the bid battle to an end, CSN had the upper hand after it had made a bid worth 4.9 billion pounds (.6 billion) or 515 pence per share, accepted by Corus on Dec. 11.

That offer trumped Tata Steel's 500 pence per share bid.

Tata started the bid battle with a 455 pence offer on Oct. 20.

Reuters DH VP0737